1. Field of the Invention
The present invention comprises apparatus for automatically justifying sheets which are punched with holes spaced inward from one margin of the sheet by squaring said one margin and two end margins so that the holes in the sheet are aligned. The book is bound using male and female plastic binding strips which are assembled at the justifying station so that the studs of the male binding strip pass through the aligned holes in the sheets and through holes in the female strip preparatory to binding.
The apparatus of the present invention is a portion of an automatic bookbinding machine. Such a machine has a frame supported above the floor. At the staging station the sheets to be bound are deposited on a tray from which they are fed into the justifying station. Male binding strips are initially packaged in cassettes which are deposited in a male strip hopper and fed one at a time from the cassette and then laterally into the assembly station. Simultaneously, female strips packaged in cassettes are assembled in a female strip hopper whence they are fed one at a time from a cassette and then cross-fed laterally into the assembly station. In the justify station which is the subject of this invention, the sheets are jogged so as to square the edges in common planes and thereby align the holes in the sheets. The assembly station is part of the justifying station, but the details of the assembly portion of the station are fully described in said patent application, Ser. No. 116,045, filed Nov. 2, 1987. After justification, the male strips are pushed inward through the aligned holes in the sheets and through the holes in the female strip. Then the assembled document is fed into the binding station. The binding station may be of several types using, for example, substantial portions of the machine shown in U. S. Pat. No. 3,811,146, whereby the strips are compressed together, thereby compressing the sheets therebetween, the excess stud lengths are cut off and heads are formed on the severed ends of the studs, binding the book together.
2. Description of Related Art
Books of the general type of the end product of the present invention are shown, among other places, in U. S. Reissue Pat. No. 28202. Such books employ male and female binding strips such as are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of U. S. Pat. No. 4,369,013.